


Fighting Shadows

by CrystalQueer



Category: RWBY, Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Wings of Fire, Artistic Liberties, Crossover, Not Beta Read, Universe Alteration, Weiss is HALF blind, Weiss is blind, i've spent so much time on this, rwby but they're dragons, there are so many characters lord help me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-02-08 11:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12863115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalQueer/pseuds/CrystalQueer
Summary: It's been seven years since the end of the Sandwing Succession and the kerfluffle with Darkstalker, the Nightwings have returned to the lost Night Kingdom and made a dragon named Kindness the Queen, the other Queens are well and the tribes are at peace. Jade Mountain Academy thrives and receives new students frequently, although they haven't added more winglets, however, there is a new headmaster.The Dragonets of Destiny have left their beloved school to be with their families, and they have left in charge an odd Nightwing named Oz, who has hired new teachers for the school.It's a new year and thus there are new students, but here are also new dangers. News of a rogue Skywing committing crimes and stealing gems has been spread about Pyrrhia, and he's been getting dangerously close to the school. A small group of dragons takes it upon themselves to find out exactly what's going on and uncover more than they were expecting.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hellooo friends! I have worked very hard on this au and turned literally e v e r y RWBY character into a dragon! We have l o t s of Skywings and ,, Very few Icewings. I have a long list of characters with descriptions and vague stories saved in a google doc and it's a lot and I'm very proud to present it!  
> This takes place about seven years after the Sandwing succession and what happened with Darkstalker, so most of our characters are seven years old (which is right around 17 in dragon years) (having hatched during Darkstalker's short reign of terror) but Ruby is five (around 15 in dragon years) and two years younger than like, everyone.  
> I had to rename a l o t of characters to fit Wings of Fire's naming systems but I wrote down the winglets and put the characters names to to their dragon names so hopefully that'll be good clarification or whatever.  
> Uhh let's see, I made Animus dragons a bit more common and fixed the Icewings problem of lack of Animus, Diamond presumably had other children who had the recessive Animus gene, so one of their kids had a hatchling with the dominant Animus trait and he gifted the tribe with the Gift of Giving, enchanting his family line to always produce at *least* one Animus.  
> If anything else needs clarification feel free to ask in the comments and I can answer or bring it up in the story!

**Welcome to the Jade Mountain Academy!**

At this school you will be learning side by side with dragons from all other tribes so we wanted to give you some basic information that may be useful as you get to know one another.  
You have been assigned to a winglet with six other dragons; the winglet groups are listed below.  
We look forward to having you as a student at the Academy.

* * *

_WINGLETS_

_Gold Winglet_

**Icewing - Snow -** Weiss Schnee  
**Mudwing - Hare -** Velvet Scarlatina  
**Nightwing - Shaderunner -** Blake Belladonna  
**Rainwing - Lotus -** Li Ren  
**Sandwing - Sun -** Sun Wukong  
**Seawing - Tuna -** Neptune Vasilias  
****Skywing - Solar -**** Yang Xiao Long

  _Silver Winglet_

 **Icewing - Seal -** Filler OC  
**Mudwing - Cacao -** Coco Adel  
**Nightwing - Noble -** Nolan Porfirio  
**Rainwing - Nora -** Nora Valkyrie  
**Sandwing - Fennec** \- Filler OC  
**Seawing - Fin -**  Filler OC  
**Skywing - Ruby -** Ruby Rose

_Jade Winglet_

**Icewing - Coldsnap -** Filler OC  
**Mudwing - Quake** \- Jaune Arc  
**Nightwing - Shadowhunter** \- Gwen Darcy  
**Rainwing - Sage -** Sage Ayana  
**Sandwing - Yucca -**  Filler OC  
**Seawing - Azure -** Octavia Ember  
**Skywing - Flame -** Pyrrha Nikos

_Copper Winglet_

**Icewing - Hoarfrost -** Filler OC  
**Mudwing - Fox** \- Fox Alistair  
****Nightwing - Blackstone -**** Flynt Coal  
**Rainwing - Neon -** Neon Katt  
**Sandwing - Lion -** Arslan Altan  
**Seawing - Dew -** Dew Gayl  
****Skywing - Cardinal -**** Cardinal Winchester 

_Quartz Winglet_

**Icewing - Platinum -** Filler OC   
**Mudwing - Mangrove** \- Yatsuhashi Daichi   
**Nightwing - Nebula -** Nebula Violette   
**Rainwing - Metallic -** Penny Polendina   
**Sandwing - Meerkat -** Filler OC   
**Seawing - Sky -** Ciel Soleil   
**Skywing - Scarlet -**  Scarlet David 

* * *

_MUDWINGS_

**Description:** thick, armored scales of various shades of brown, most often mud-colored, sometimes with amber and gold underscales; large, flat heads with nostrils on top of the snout.  
**Abilities:** can breathe fire (if warm enough), hold their breath for up to an hour, blend into large mud puddles; usually very strong.  
**Queen:** Queen Moorhen  
**Students at Jade Mountain:** Quake, Hare, Fox, Cacao, Mangrove.

_SANDWINGS_

**Description:** pale gold, yellow or white scales the color of desert sand their scales can also be shades of lighter browns, poisonous barbed tail, forked black tongues.  
**Abilities:** can survive a long time without water, poison enemies with the tips of their tails like scorpions, bury themselves for camouflage in desert sand, breathe fire.  
**Queen:** Queen Thorn  
**Students at Jade Mountain:** Fennec, Sun, Meerkat, Lion, Yucca.

_SKYWINGS_

**Description:** various shades of reds and oranges, occasionally shades of yellow, large wings and long legs.  
**Abilities:** powerful fighters and fliers, can breathe fire  
**Queen:** Queen Ruby  
**Students at Jade Mountain:** Ruby, Solar, Flame, Scarlet, Cardinal

_SEAWINGS_

**Description:** various shades of blues and greens, occasionally purples; webs between their claws; gills on their necks;glow-in-the-dark stripes on their tails, snouts and underbellies.  
**Abilities:** can breathe underwater, see in the dark, create waves with one splash of their powerful tails, excellent swimmers.  
**Queen:** Queen Coral  
**Students at Jade Mountain:** Fin, Dew, Tuna, Sky, Azure.

_RAINWINGS_

**Description:** scales constantly shift colors, usually bright like birds of paradise; prehensile tails  
**Abilities:** can camouflage their scales to blend into their surroundings; shoot a deadly venom from their fangs.  
**Queen:** Queen Glory  
**Students at Jade Mountain:** Metallic, Nora, Lotus, Neon.

_ICEWINGS_

**Description:** pale blue, white or silvery scales that can also come tinted with black, pink or purple; ridged claws to grip the ice; forked blue tongues; tails narrow to whip-thin end  
**Abilities:** can withstand subzero temperatures and bright light, exhale deadly frosthbreath  
**Queen:** Queen Snowfall  
**Students at Jade Mountain:** Snow, Seal, Platinum, Hoarfrost, Coldsnap.

_NIGHTWINGS_

**Description:** Solid black scales, often with an iridescent shine (red, blue, purple, or green) and silver star-like scales scattered on the undersides of their wings, undersides of their wings can be dark blue, purple, green or red (or solid black); forked black tongues  
**Abilities:** can breathe fire, disappear into dark shadows; once known for reading minds and foretelling the future, powers that are slowly coming back.  
**Queen:** Queen Kindness (formerly Queen Glory of the Rainwings)  
**Students at Jade Mountain:** Shadowhunter, Shaderunner, Nebula, Noble, Blackstone.

* * *

 _PROLOGUE_  
_RED_

Ruby was dreaming again; that wasn't unusual. She was half Nightwing and constantly had vivid dreams, often they were reoccurring dreams and she'd have them more than once, this one was no exception. She was standing on a cliff, behind her there was a forest of bare trees, the ground was coated in snow but she didn't feel cold, the sky was dark but the area around her was bright and she could see fine. In front of her was dark nothingness, possibly an ocean or something.

With nothing else to do, Ruby stared out ahead of her before turning and walking towards the forest, her tail dragging in the snow. She was calm, this dream never picked up until she reached the forest clearing

And reach the clearing she did, in what she assumed to be the center of the forest was a large field of snow, it was empty save for a pack of weird, shadowy wold-like creatures who all turned to stare at her as soon as she breached the edge of the forest. Ruby stared back and growled, her growl was answered by snarls from the wolves. Ruby charged them and they ran at her.

From there the dream became a frenzied fight, her against the wolves with her winning. She burned them and melted snow with her fire and hit them with her wings and tail and bit and clawed..

And when it was over, when she had killed all of the wolves and watched the last of them dissolve into puddles of shadow on half melted snow, a peaceful calm settled over the clearing and Ruby woke up.

She was safe in her nest in her family's small-ish house, in the same room was her older sister Solar, who snoed softly. Ruby frowned, usually her dreams meant nothing but she couldn't help but feel like that dream meant _something._

_WHITE_

Snow was performing. She stood on a stage of ice in a hall of snow, the crowd filled with glittering Icewings. In the front row was Queen Snowfall herself, looking regal in simple silver jewelry. Snow was arguably the best Icewing performer and it was a high honor to be singing for the Queen so she did her best.

But she couldn't help but zone out just a bit, thinking back to a couple months ago. She and her father were arguing about whether or not she could go to Jade Mountain Academy again while out hunting, and while out hunting they came across a scavenger den that was crawling with scavengers. Frost, her father, told her that she could go to the Academy- if she could destroy the entire scavenger den on her own.

It seemed simple enough and she figured she could do it, what were scavengers to an Icewing? Even if she was a slightly smaller than average Icewing she was still in the first circle and performed exceptionally. But she underestimated how many scavengers there were and how sharp their weapons were.

The fight went great until one scavenger managed to drag a knife down the side of her face and over one eye while she was distracted by a few others. But even blinded and bleeding, she made sure she destroyed the scavengers.

Who cared if she was blind and scarred? She got to leave the Ice Kingdom.

(She secretly wondered if she had been set up to fail, because her father would definitely be the type to do that.)

And now she performed for Queen Snowfall even though her face was marred. Snow raised her head higher, trying to appear proud despite her worries for her future.

_BLACK_

Just a little bit of sabotage she was told. Spiteful had a plan, he wanted to take out a few of the new watch platforms the Rainwings were putting up, he said it was to delay them like they delayed the Nightwings. If not for the Rainwings, he said, the Nightwings could've been so much greater, they could've discovered the Night Kingdom on their own, they didn't need a Rainwing Queen, the Rainwings shouldn't have taken advantage of the Nightwings were who fleeing from the volcano but they did and they messed up the Nightwings and their progress and made them look weak.

And Shaderunner agreed.

She felt bad though, because she did have one Rainwing friend, her name was Chameleon and she was pretty great, but Shade didn't see her any more because she moved to the Nightwing Kingdom along with her family. But now they were back at the rain forest and it wasn't to visit old friends.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Shade, it had taken a day and night of flying to get to the rain forest and now she stood on a hill in the outskirts of the Mud Kingdom, watching the sun as it set. Spiteful only nodded and stared into the rain forest; wandering closer to it. His plan was pretty simple, they were going to wait until dark (which was fast approaching) to go and take out a couple of the platforms they could reach and then fly back to the Night Kingdom as fast as they could. It would be a long and tiring flight but they could probably make it.

Spiteful returned minutes later, the last of the sun's light made his scales gleam red. "Shade, it's time." he said, staring dramatically into the rain forest. "Okay," replied Shade, watching as Spiteful took to the air, she followed shortly after and together they flew towards the rain forest on silent wings.

The first platform was hidden quite well right in the outskirts of the forest, it was half disguised by leaves and vines and looked pretty rickety, they obviously hadn't finished building it and it was unguarded like they had hoped. Shade landed on it heavily, making the whole platform rock, and looked out past the tree line. It really was a good view, and Shade realized that once it was fully hidden, any Rainwings could camouflage themselves and watch Mudwings and the Mudwings would never know.

While she was admiring the view, Spiteful hovered just below the platform and yanked at one of the supports, grumbling in annoyance.

"Can I get a little help here?" He said, shooting a glare at Shade as she leaned over the edge to watch. In response she straightened up and jumped on it, making the platform rock more. "I'm helping by unbalancing it." She replied. Spiteful snorted.

They didn't get much further than that. "Intruders!" Shouted a voice. "Identify yourselves!" A Rainwing, colored grey and red, came hurtling out of the shadows and slammed into Spiteful, a few more followed, she wasn't sure how many because one shoved her off the platform.

She caught herself in the air and hovered, watching as Spiteful dealt with two Rainwings, two more were coming at her. The resulting battle seemed to happen quickly, she didn't have much time to see what was going on between fending off Rainwings and trying to get them off Spiteful, there were only four, thankfully but they were hard to get rid of. Glory had trained her soldiers well and the two Nightwings were outnumbered two to one.

Spiteful flung one off of himself and into another and sent them both crashing into the platform, since he had messed with one of the supports the already unsteady platform fell from its perch on the branch, taking the two Rainwings with it. One was unconscious and white, the other was awake acid green, unable to help themself and their friend.

From there, they didn't have much trouble with knocking out the other two and leaving them draped over branches. As soon as they were down, Spiteful turned in the air. "Come on!" He said, pausing when he realized Shade hadn't moved and stayed hovering by the Rainwings, concern on her face.

"What about the Rainwings?" She asked, worries for the two who had fallen and not come back up.

"What about them?" Spiteful replied, a growl in his voice. He turned and flew off, clumsily weaving between the trees and vines. Shade watched, then she turned and went the other way, flying back home. She couldn't help someone like this; destroying platforms was one thing, killing dragons was another.

_YELLOW_

Solar landed outside a large building of wood and stone, inside there was laughter and low voices, but not many. The club wasn't too busy tonight and that was good for her.

She shifted her wings back and tilted her head up, looking as confident as she felt, although she didn't feel completely confident. Still, she strode through the wooden doors, sending them swinging after she was through. The music, some instruments played by some Skywings, stopped and heads turned to stare. She knew how odd it was, she was new and unfamiliar, young and fresh in an old bar of former soldiers and current mercenaries. Would she back down? No.

Ignoring the stares, Solar walked right up to the bar, behind which stood a large, muscly Skywing, red and reddish brown. Perhaps half Mudwing? It didn't matter.

"Aren't you a little young to be here, goldie?" He said, narrowing his eyes and looking her over. Solar shifted her wings in a shrug. "Aren't you a little old to be called Junior?" She replied nonchalantly.

The Skywing wrinkled his snout. "So you know who I am. What do you want?"

 Solar pulled a folded picture from a pouch around her neck, unfolded it and slammed it on the bar. It was a well-done drawing of a Skywing-Nightwing hybrid, black with red-amber eyes and a red throat and underbelly.

"I want answers. Do you know who this is?" She growled. Junior studied the picture, or at least pretended to, a moment later he said, "no."

She wanted to lunge across the bar and grab him, she wanted to but she didn't. Her uncle had told her that this was a bar for ex-soldiers who had fought in the Sandwing Succession war, he didn't usually give her hints but he said that she could look here, it was why she had come. "Where is she?!" Solar demanded, slamming her fists on the bar. Bear growled. "I don't _know_!"

This time, she did lunge across the bar and grab him, although he was quite bigger than her. He reared back with surprise and she grabbed his throat. The music stopped and dragons shuffled, faint growls sounded behind them. He shoved her away and she went, snatching the picture off the bar as she tumbled.

Solar shoved it back into the pouch and straightened up, now a good few feet away. She turned back to the bar and Junior, who glared at her. She grinned back.

"Aw come on Junior, don't be mad, I just have a bit of a temper!" She pouted. "Let's kiss and make up?" She tilted her head and blinked sweetly.

"Seriously?" Junior stared at her, his glare softening to a more confused look, he glanced around at the other Skywings in the bar then looked at Solar, who nodded.

He approached and she waited, leaning out towards him. When he was close enough he closed his eyes, and she swung around and smacked the side of his head with a wing. Junior recoiled with shock, having been hit with a solid blow. Shocked gasps came from the few dragons in the bar and Junior straightened and growled. "Get out." He snarled. "Or I'll kill you."

Solar cocked her head. "So why don't you?" She asked. "Too afraid you'll get beaten up by a dragonet?"

He snarled and charged her and she realized why his name was really Bear, her acted like one.

They traded blows, wings, tails and talons flew as they fought but they were mostly matched. Solar grinned, she was having a blast (although she knew she would be quite bruised the next day).

Eventually, though, the short fight came to a close when she managed to hit Junior hard enough to slam him out through the doors, they swung wildly behind him. Stunned Skywings watched as Solar grinned, bowed, and trotted out the doors after him.

She proceeded cautiously, cool night air  washed over her scales. Solar looked around, but oddly enough she couldn't see Junior. She raised her wings, ready to lift off when a rustling noise caught her attention, her head snapped around and watched the shadows but only a familiar deep red dragon emerged.

"Solar?" said her sister. "What are you doing here?"

Solar relaxed. "It's.." she paused and glanced behind her. "A long story. What about you?"

She started walking into the forest and Ruby followed, talking about a dream she had that kept her awake, a story that was as long as the walk home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments would be greatly appreciated!! They're really encouraging and better than just kudos in my humble opinion <3
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at blakes-cat-ears.tumblr.com and can send me asks or bother me for updates there.
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed <3 I know this is just the prologue, but the first chapter will be up soon so don't forget to bookmark if you wanna see that :D


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some character introductions and stuff for our main four.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's about time I update! I haven't touched this in a while but hopefully I'll get back into it.

Snow the Icewing stared into the mirror in her room, it was the only real decorative item in there, aside from a polar bear pelt on the ice shelf where she slept. The mirror had been a gift from her parents and was quite beautiful; it was a shame she wouldn't see it for a long time. She had been chosen by Queen Snowfall to be one of the next Icewings that go to Jade Mountain Academy, she had actually asked to go and promised she wouldn't use her animus gift while she was gone, she just wanted to learn and see more, which was unusual considering that she was a first circle Icewing, and an animus. She should be perfectly content with her life.

But Snow couldn't help but be curious about the tribes outside of the Ice Kingdom, so she asked Queen Snowfall if she could go, and Snowfall granted her permission.

Snow's father, Frost, was very angry at her for this, he didn't want her to go, insisting that since she was an animus she shouldn't be allowed to leave the kingdom, thankfully Snowfall didn't listen to him, but Snow still had to. He yelled at her constantly, to the point where she refused to leave her room unless to eat or hunt. She only had a few days before she left, so she had been getting by.

Snow tilted her head to look at one side of her face better in the mirror, over her right eye was a thin blue scar, it wasn't very long but it was noticeable. What was even more noticeable was her eye, pale blue in color, it was fairly obvious she was blind.

Maybe going to Jade Mountain Academy was a bad idea. Maybe she should listen to her father and stay in the Ice Kingdom. She shook her head and turned away from the mirror to pad over to her ice shelf, claws clicking on the icy floor of her room. She had to leave tomorrow morning to fly all the way to the Academy, so it would be best if she stopped staring into the mirror and actually got some sleep; she would need it, the flight was going to be long.

She carefully climbed onto the shelf and laid down, folding her wings tightly around her body. She closed her eyes and sighed, not entirely ready for whatever tomorrow would hold.

* * *

"I can't believe you get to go to the Academy!" Ruby exclaimed. "You're gonna leave me all alone!"

"Oh, don't worry, I'll come visit." Solar nudged her younger sister with her wing, maybe a bit too hard because Ruby stumbled and hit her back.

"But you'll have new friends and forget me!" replied Ruby, Solar shook her head. 

"You're my _sister_ , how could I forget you? But I probably will make new friends." she said, ignoring Ruby's pout. "I'll be sure to write to you and dad and tell you all about my new friends and awesome adventures."

"You're just going to school, how awesome can your adventures be?" asked Ruby.

"You seem to think I'll be going on awesome adventures." Solar answered. "So if I go on any, I'll tell you about them."

Ruby huffed. "I want to go to Jade Mountain Academy." She said, being only five years old and two years younger than her sister, Ruby was too young to go to JMA, her sister however, was seven and old enough to attend the school, which Ruby thought was unfair, but clearly couldn't do anything about.

The two were out in the forest and they were supposed to be helping their father hunt for dinner that night so they could have a large meal before Solar left the next morning, but Ruby had taken the opportunity to complain about it wasn't fair that Solar was leaving.

"I know," Solar said. "But come on, we gotta hunt, can't go back to the house empty clawed."

Her sister nodded and trotted off, Solar hung back and watched, she was really going to miss Ruby while she was away; but she was sure she'd be fine.

* * *

 Shaderunner walked through the mostly empty halls of the Nightwing palace, her claws clicking on the stones and the scroll case that was around her neck gently thumped against her chest with each step. She had been there for a while, ever  since she was about two or three, and she still didn't have the dark and twisting hallways memorized.

When a dragon from Nightwing legends returned from wherever he had been, he had created chaos across the continent but he had also revealed the location of the lost Night Kingdom, and after he disappeared for a second time the Nightwings returned to it, queen-less. They worked on restoring it and somehow Shade's mother Kindness had become Queen, making Shade's father, Rulemaker, a King and Shade a princess. Shade had only been a dragonet when this happened. Her family lived in the palace along with some other Nightwings, and at night they worked hard to restore it as other Nightwings worked to restore other parts of the kingdom, it was looking better but there was still a lot of work to be done, mostly the school, the largest building next to the castle, needed the most work.

The Nightwings had recovered many ancient scrolls, most of which crumbled in dragon's claws, but others held together long enough for their contents to be rewritten. It was a work in progress but it was coming along. Shade currently had one of the copied scrolls with her in the scroll case and was trying to find her way back to her room. She wondered why ancient Nightwings had made their palace so complicated.

She wanted to return to her room soon because she wanted to read at least a little bit of her scroll before she had to force herself to sleep; tomorrow she had to be up during the day to go to school, Jade Mountain Academy, not the Nightwing school, which she figured would be better because she wouldn't be forced to be awake during the day. Her parents wanted her to go so she could learn instead of spend her nights helping clear the halls of the palace or clear the garden. She understood that; it didn't mean she wanted to go.

Finally, she reached her room. Shade walked in a spread her wings to fill the empty space, the room was large and empty, only decorated with torch holders and a hollow off to one side filled with furs to sleep on. She hoped that over time she could decorate it with scrolls, shelves and trinkets, but for now it was empty. On one wall three large arches served as windows, they were big enough for her to fly through and on each side hung large, crumbling pieces of fabric she suspected were curtains. The room must've been beautiful back in the day, but now it was just sad and empty.

Shade folded her wings again and made her way over to the sleeping hollow, she lit a torch before laying down and cuing up on the furs, yawning as she carefully pulled the scroll out from the scroll case.

Tomorrow she left for Jade Mountain Academy, but for now she would read and enjoy the last of her normal sleeping schedule.


End file.
